Trucks, trains, and ships

CSX has a commercial on TV that says it can move 1 ton of freight 423 miles on 1 gallon of fuel. Let's convert that to mpg equivalency of a fully loaded 80,000 lb. tractor trailer.

1 ton 423 miles on 1 gallon

multiply times 40 to get:

40 tons 423 miles on 40 gallons

40 tons = 80,000 lbs

80,000 lbs 423 miles on 40 gallons

423 miles/ 40 gallons = 10.5 mpg for the train per 80,000 lbs of freight.

Given that the most net freight a truck can haul is about 44,000 lbs and the truck trailer combo loaded at 80,000 lbs gets about 6 mpg, there is a lot of room for reducing tare weight of vehicle to improve mpg. If the empty weight of the tractor trailer could be reduced by half, this would place mpg of tractor trailer really close to rail. As fuel maintains high price, there is an economic incentive to use more exotic materials in the construction of tractor trailers.

The result of having a 20,000 lb. tractor trailer combo be able to haul 60,000 lb of net freight would reduce highway congestion and foreign oil use. At some price of fuel, there will be an economic equalibrium that makes this happen.

 

Next load dropped via truckline ask, how come a train did not deliver this load a crap ? Most likley the anwser will be cause we tried that and we never did ever get our stuff !

Anybody got suggestions what to do with the three big abandonded railways within three miles of where im sitting ? We can't grow any crops on the contaminated soil and there not much money in bicycle paths.

I have personally delivered with my semi over a thousand load pertaning to big rails existance. Whats left Big Rail has prospered by goverment subsidies. And every part of Big Rail was hauled in by a Trucker !

For investment purposes I suggest staying away from transportation alltogether, with big air being the most volatile.